Updated Jan. 17, 2025, at 1 p.m.
When the Devens housing working group meets for the first time next Tuesday afternoon, Jan. 21, one of its first tasks will be to clarify its mission.
The economic development bill that created the eight-member committee states that its job is to come up with a plan for increased housing production within Devens, “including, but not limited to, the feasibility of allowing not more than 400 multifamily residential units in the Innovation and Technology Center zoning district.”
That language suggests the committee is free to explore other areas within Devens, including 81 undeveloped acres already zoned for housing, most of which are located near the neighborhoods of Emerson Green (60 acres) and Adams Circle (12 acres). However, officials and stakeholders interviewed by the Press over the past month say the working group will likely focus first on the largest of the two parcels of the 90-acre ITC district, which are not currently zoned for housing.
Members of the working group and staff from the state Executive Office of Economic Development will gather at 1:30 p.m. in MassDevelopment’s offices in 33 Andrews Parkway. Members of the public are invited to attend, but remote access will not be provided. An announcement posted online says the agenda will include a presentation regarding the regional need for additional housing production in and around Devens, and a presentation and discussion regarding the current zoning and residential uses at Devens. The six-member group, which will now be known as the Devens Housing Production Working Group, has until May 19 to submit a plan for housing at Devens to the Legislature.
The area encompassed by the two parcels of the Innovation and Technology Center district (outlined in heavy line) totals 90 acres, and includes Vicksburg Square as well as other buildings abandoned by the Army. Housing is currently not an allowed use. Rogers Field is protected open space. (Source: Devens Enterprise Commission)
The horseshoe-shaped ITC district embraces Rogers Field, the former parade ground of Fort Devens, and includes the iconic quadrangle of abandoned Army barracks known as Vicksburg Square, the Bob Eisengrein Community Center, the former bachelor officer quarters at the corner of Elm Road and Sherman Avenue, and a number of other buildings. It also includes a parcel adjacent to Jackson Road that is currently a parking lot. The entire ITC district lies within the Fort Devens Historic District, and Vicksburg Square is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Rogers Field is permanently protected open space.
In a presentation to the resident-elected Devens Committee last Wednesday, Devens Enterprise Commission Director Neil Angus observed that the economic development bill did not change any of the zoning at Devens, including that of the ITC district. It could not because the state law that governs the redevelopment of Devens, Chapter 498, says any change to zoning must be approved by majority votes of the Town Meetings of Ayer, Harvard, and Shirley, and that the language of the article presented to voters be approved by MassDevelopment, the agency responsible for redeveloping the former U.S. Army base and providing services to its residents and businesses.
“The [ITC district] as it’s set up now has a lot of flexibility to accommodate a wide range of uses—except residential,” Angus said. Allowed uses include educational, office, light industrial, research and development, cultural, municipal, and small-scale retail. “These are all things that could happen tomorrow in this area,” said Angus. “What the working group is looking at is adding residential as another allowed use.”
When the Devens Reuse Plan was devised in 1993, Angus said, Vicksburg Square was seen as a potential urban center, the heart of the project. But there was a housing glut in Central Massachusetts and planners were reluctant to allow more residential units beyond those left behind by the Army. Hence, the housing cap of 282 units, which the economic development bill has eliminated.
With the housing cap gone, working group members are free to reconsider the 1993 plan. “If [the ITC district] is set up to be an urban center, it would be good to have more residents in that area,” Angus said.
“Do you think the working group would contemplate changing zoning for the entire district to permit residential, or could that district be subdivided?,” asked Jim Geller, who was among the approximately one dozen Devens residents who attended the presentation in person or remotely.
“Spot zoning, where you set aside a smaller area in a larger district,” is illegal, answered Angus, but subdividing the area was “not impossible.” The district already includes the headquarters of the Devens state police contingent, a municipal use, Angus noted, as well as Learning Express, an educational organization, and Seqens, a biotech company. “Mixed uses can work out nicely for everybody, if that’s something that the working group decides is a viable option.”
Considering affordability, historical status
Other factors likely to figure into the group‘s work are the affordability of any housing it proposes—25% of housing at Devens must be affordable as measured by regional home values and rental rates—as well as the historical status of the area, which requires the preservation of its look and feel to retain its Georgian-revival architectural heritage.
Devens residents will be represented by the current chair of the Devens Committee, Laura Scott. That decision was confirmed by a unanimous vote of the five committee members last Wednesday, who also elected Scott to remain chair of the committee for another year. In accepting her role as the committee’s representative on the working group, Scott said she planned to assemble an advisory group of residents from each of Devens’ neighborhoods with whom she will consult before casting any votes on behalf of the community.
Editor's note: This story has been updated to report the agenda and openness of next week’s meeting of the Devens Housing Production Working Group.
